1) Malnourished Children are Around Us

Jayapura, Jubi – Since malnutrition is never considered a disease, malnourished children have received less attention from the public, a journalist said.

“I witnessed it around my neighborhood and Toware, Waibu Sub-district. Then it encouraged me to write about this issue, to get people’s attention and open their mind,” Inez Seria Marweri, a civil journalist from Sentani told Jubi on Friday during the break of Workshop Meeting of News Editors and Papua Civil Journalists for Health Public Service Improvement in Jayapura City.

She said seriously affects children’s growth whether they live in the villages or urban areas. “Because most parents do not really care about it though it exists around us,” she said.

Even they often say it is not a disease and do nothing.“Malnutrition will reduce the immune system, making sufferers vulnerable to diseases,” she said. She added no wonder the village chiefs always blamed the women for not taking care of health service as well as the family education programs at villages.

Meanwhile, malnutrition wasn’t the only case of Keerom Regency, it also happened at Merauke Regency. The Head of Merauke Health Office, dr. Stefanus Osok said malnutrition case in every regions including Merauke Regency couldn’t be intervened by government since it was directly related to the community welfare.

As long as the improvement of their economic status was stagnant, the malnutrition case would be automatically in line with their economic status. A data from Merauke Health Office showed the percentage of malnutrition and worse malnutrition in Merauke reaches twenty percent of the current number of toddlers. So, according to Osok, the number of malnutrition is around seven percent while the rest is worse malnutrition.

The MDGs set up a target for malnutrition figures should not be more than fifteen percent while worse malnutrition figures should not be more than five percent. “But why did we still find some malnourished toddlers? Because they consumed less nutritious intake as suggested. For example, a nutritious meal must consist of carbohydrate, protein, fat and fruits as well as vegetables. These ingredients should be consisted in a dish to be consumed, then coupled with a glass of milk. Therefore, once we had a tagline ‘Empat Sehat Lima Sempurna (Four for Health and Five for Perfection’, “ said Osok. (Dominggus Mampioper/rom)

2) Papua To Plant 1,000 Hectares of Sweet Potato in 2015

Jayapura, Jubi – The Department of Food Crops and Horticulture in Papua will plant 1,000 hectares of sweet potato in Merauke this year, an official said.

“We are thinking local food must be preserved and promoted. We have to think a moment, if there is no supply of food from outside, Papua can live with local commodities, ” head of Food Crops and Horticulture Papua, Samuel Siriwa told reporters in Jayapura, Papua on Sunday (15/02/2015).

He said currently Papua is self-sufficient in sweet potato.“We should encourage local food because in rural areas, the rice program will be stopped. Now officials prefer to eat local meals and avoid eating rice at parties,” he added.

Earlier, head of Food Security of Papua Province, Altical Patulak, urged people not to rely on rice.

The provincial government plans to draft legislation to promote and preserve local food.“We have proposed a weekly ‘no rice day’,” Patulak stated. Continued, currently the Papuan people have started to get used to consume food from outside, such as rice. This causes local food started slowly forgotten.

“Now we begin to stimulate local food cultivation, such as tubers because we do not want people to depend on food from outside, “he said. (Alexander Loen/ Tina)

3) KNPB Sorong Raya Strongly Reject Dialogue with Jakarta

Sorong, Jubi – The deputy chairmand the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in Sorong Raya region, Kamtius Heselo, said the organization rejected dialogue between Jakarta and Papua.

He said dialogue is a political game of a few people who want to retain their positions and is not a solution.

Kamtius said Papua is not a question of daily survival. Even though it has an element of welfare, the issue is more about political rights as emphasized in Vanuatu that Papuans wants referendum.“We know the Jakarta-Papua dialogue is the interests of a few people who is seeking positions, including the development and special autonomy, but now we’ve officially part of Melanesian Spreadheads Group (MSG),” Kamtius said.

He further said KNPB demanded an Act of Free Choice (Pepera) be held again because the vote conducted in 1969 was invalid and it was known that Papuans had no free choice at that time as they lived in pressure .

One of KNPB members also echoed it. It rejected the whole program planned by the President to Papua,including the implementation of special autonomy, development programs and other things for Papua. He said the only one he just wanted is a referendum. (Nees Makuba/ Tina)

4) Papua Governor: Why Should Aceh Be Given Special Treatment

Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said Aceh does not deserve its status as a special province.

“What do they have? It is not fair. We’ll keep our existing Special Regional Regulation,” Enembe told reporters in Jayapura on Sunday (15/2/2015).

He believed Papua has done its best to push for Special Autonomy Law .

“Last year we have done the first phase, now our proposed New Special Autonomy Law (Otsus Plus) should have been registered in the National Legislative Program (Prolegnas) of 2015, but it wasn’t in reality,” he said.

According to him, before the determination of Prolegnas 2015, all fractions at Indonesian Parliament have agreed except a fraction from PDIP that represent the government.

“According to us, the Otsus Plus is the answer of Papua’s issues in line with the Indonesian ideology,” he said. On the other hand, he additionally said, the Central Government want to resolve it through a dialogue.

“I don’t know the concept of the dialogue yet. But I think the Otsus Plus is appropriate for the provincial government while Papuans could interpret it differently. Do not try talking about a dialogue to Papuans because they will have their own interpretations,” said Enembe. (Alexander Loen/rom)